White chocolate & coconut cinnamon babka
This is a dessert inspired by my boyfriend's favourite tea.
No, really. I know that sounds like some insufferable prosecco mum baking blog codswallop, but the entire story is: Bird and Blend sometimes do a white tea called "Duvet Day" which mixes up coconut and cinnamon with a little jasmine, and he likes it. It smells amazing, and makes me think of bounty bars.
So this starts with that aroma, and with him having a sweet tooth, and with me not really not knowing how to bake anything that isn't bread or pastry. I've steeped some of the tea in the glazing syrup for good measure at the end. You could infuse it into the milk, too.
This is a soft, aromatic dessert bread packed with dark and white chocolate. And of course coconut and cinnamon.
You can prove the dough overnight if you want - it'll give a deeper flavour to the bread. Just pop it in the fridge in a plastic bag after the first stage, then carry on the next morning. Maybe give it an hour out of the fridge to warm up a bit before rolling it.
Ingredients:
Bread dough
Flour, 250g
Butter, 50g
Egg, 1 medium
Milk, 100g
Sugar, 1tbsp (golden caster)
Yeast, 7g packet
Salt, 5g
Cinnamon, 1/2 tsp
Filling
White chocolate, 100g
Dark chocolate, 50g
Desiccated coconut, 70g
Sugar, 50g (soft brown or light muscovado)
Flour, 25g
Butter, 60g
Rum, 2tbsp (spiced for preference, white is fine, Malibu if yo' nasty)
Cinnamon, 1tsp
Syrup to glaze
Caster sugar, 100g
Water, 150g
Bird and Blend "Duvet Day" tea, 2tbsp
(The tea is optional, just use the water and sugar to make a syrup if you can’t get it)
I actually make this with margarine (Stork), Lactofree milk, and dairy-free chocolate because the boyfriend is lactose intolerant. The main difference I can detect is that it's very slightly less rich.
All the butter in this recipe is room temperature, and don't even tell me you refrigerate your eggs. You need that fridge space for cheese and sherry.
Instructions:
1) Making the dough
If you're comfortable making bread: make bread dough out of the bread ingredients, set it to prove, and skip to the next part.
You could use a stand mixer for this, but the quantity is a bit low for most large ones and it may be more faff than it's worth, with a good deal of stopping to scrape the sides.
Instead: mix all of the dough ingredients together in a big bowl, working until it comes together into a ball. I use my hands for this. Yes, it's probably meant to be that sticky.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly-floured worktop, and knead it until the texture changes, and it becomes really elastic. This will take about 15 minutes. The key is to trust the dough and not add extra flour, or it'll become dense and tough. It's very sticky at first - a proper mess, like trying to punch batter. But around the 2 minute mark it starts to come together and stick to itself more than the worktop. Then around 6 minutes in you're kneading a recognisable dough that's starting to go a bit soft and silky under the hand.
This is the gluten really getting going, making it nice and elastic and able to hold the air from the rise. Keep at it. At 15 minutes or so it should have a lovely stretchy texture and be a little bit glossy, not really sticking to your hands much at all. Great. Nice work.
Put it in a bowl, covered with cling film or a cloth or something and leave it in a reasonably warm place for about an hour, or until it's doubled in bulk. Alternatively, prove overnight in the fridge.
2) Filling and finishing
Cream together the butter, sugar, flour and cinnamon. Then stir in the coconut and rum. You could use a tablespoon of bourbon, or even water or milk if you don't have rum. It's only partly for the flavour - the mix wants loosening up a bit and the coconut will benefit from soaking up a little liquid.
Chop the chocolate roughly.
Grease your cake tin.
When the dough has bulked up gently roll it out to a rectangle, about 40cm by about 30cm. Spread the filling evenly over the surface, scatter with the chocolate, and roll it up from the long (40cm) side, like a swiss roll .
Tuck the ends under and squish to seal. With a sharp knife slit the roll up the middle leaving a few centimetres at one end attached, like a partly undone zip. Twist the strands round each other into a bit of a spiral, and smoosh the ends together to form a ring. Put this in a bundt tin (or a loaf tin, or just on a baking sheet if you don't have one) and leave to rise for 45 mins to one hour. Cover it in a lightly oiled plastic bag, or an upturned bowl or something while it rises, ideally something that doesn't touch the top and impede the rise.
When you're ready to bake, heat the oven to 180c and put the babka in for 20-25 minutes. Around the 15 minute mark, pop some foil gently on top, shiny side up, to stop it burning. The sugar means it'll over-brown something fierce, so a little foil hat keeps the worst of the heat off the top.
Make the syrup while it's baking. Steep the tea in the water (ideally at 85c) for a few minutes then pour it into a pan with the sugar, and simmer gently until the sugar's dissolved and it's reduced by about a third. Set aside.
When the babka comes out of the oven, brush it generously with the syrup and leave to cool.
Even if it doesn’t look the best (goodness knows mine doesn’t) it’ll taste pretty good. For more reliable presentation, use a loaf tin, not a bundt. You may end up wanting a couple minutes more on the bake if you do.